M4(1) User Commands M4(1) NAME m4 - macro processor SYNOPSIS m4 [OPTION]... [FILE]... DESCRIPTION Process macros in FILEs. If no FILE or if FILE is -, standard input is read. Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are mandatory or optional for short options too. Operation modes: --help display this help and exit --version output version information and exit -E, --fatal-warnings once: warnings become errors, twice: stop execution at first error -i, --interactive unbuffer output, ignore interrupts -P, --prefix-builtins force a m4_ prefix to all builtins -Q, --quiet, --silent suppress some warnings for builtins --warn-macro-sequence[=REGEXP] warn if macro definition matches REGEXP, default \$\({[^}]*}\|[0-9][0-9]+\) -W, --word-regexp=REGEXP use REGEXP for macro name syntax Preprocessor features: -D, --define=NAME[=VALUE] define NAME as having VALUE, or empty -I, --include=DIRECTORY append DIRECTORY to include path -s, --synclines generate #line NUM "FILE" lines -U, --undefine=NAME undefine NAME Limits control: -G, --traditional suppress all GNU extensions -H, --hashsize=PRIME set symbol lookup hash table size [509] -L, --nesting-limit=NUMBER change artificial nesting limit [1024] Frozen state files: -F, --freeze-state=FILE produce a frozen state on FILE at end -R, --reload-state=FILE reload a frozen state from FILE at start Debugging: -d, --debug[=FLAGS] set debug level (no FLAGS implies aeq) --debugfile=FILE redirect debug and trace output -l, --arglength=NUM restrict macro tracing size -t, --trace=NAME trace NAME when it is defined FLAGS is any of: a show actual arguments c show before collect, after collect and after call e show expansion f say current input file name i show changes in input files l say current input line number p show results of path searches q quote values as necessary, with a or e flag t trace for all macro calls, not only traceoned x add a unique macro call id, useful with c flag V shorthand for all of the above flags If defined, the environment variable M4PATH is a colon-separated list of directories included after any specified by -I. Exit status is 0 for success, 1 for failure, 63 for frozen file version mismatch, or whatever value was passed to the m4exit macro. AUTHOR Written by Rene Seindal. REPORTING BUGS Report bugs to . COPYRIGHT Copyright 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. SEE ALSO The full documentation for m4 is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and m4 programs are properly installed at your site, the com mand info m4 should give you access to the complete manual. GNU M4 1.4.11 April 2008 M4(1)